Criminals are using fake customer service phone numbers to trick holiday shoppers into handing over personal and financial data.

Here’s how it works: You have a question about a purchase, so you search for a store's customer service number online. You dial the number featured at the top of the search results and reach a recording that asks for your payment card number or billing address.

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“Scammers are purchasing toll free numbers and promoting them though search ads and fraudulent websites,” warns the Better Business Bureau. “In a hurry, consumers simply dial the first number, not realizing it's an ad placed by scammers.”

It’s also easy to buy phone numbers that resemble actual customer support lines to take advantage of people who misdial. And it’s not just online stores like Amazon – victims have also fallen for fake numbers posing as banks or credit card providers.

Here’s how to spot fake customer service numbers:

1. Remain skeptical of results that appear in search ads. Listings placed at the top and sides of search pages are typically reserved for advertisements, which scammers can easily purchase.

2. Only call the customer service phone number printed on a credit card, receipt or found on a company's official website.

3. Contact the business via email or instant messenger

How can companies protect consumers?

“Voice biometrics can automatically identify known fraudsters based on voice prints, alerting agents and supervisors of potential fraudulent activity while the call is occurring, analyzing the voice signal at the beginning of the call,” Scott Kendrick, VP of Marketing at CallMiner, told us Friday. “Speech analytics can identify ‘patterns of language,’ like words and phrases, that are frequently used by various fraud attempts or phishing scams."

Online retail sales have surged to a new high - 59 percent of Americans opted to skip brick-and-mortar stores when purchasing Christmas gifts this year.